The nation’s education chief today said states can seek waivers that would shield poor performing teachers from the ramifications of new evaluations for a full year.

US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s announcement came after heavy lobbying — from American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten — to delay plans by New York and other states to hold teachers accountable to higher standards known as Common Core.

In a recent speech in the city, Weingarten — the former local teachers’ union president — singled out New York state for wrongly testing kids on the higher standards this year before rolling out a related curriculum.

She said judging teachers based in part on those test scores would be unfair.

State education officials insisted the waiver option wouldn’t have any local impact, because the new evaluation system is written into state law.

It says student performance will count toward 40 percent of teachers’ ratings in 2013-14, with observations by principals comprising the remaining 60 percent.

But Duncan’s list of states eligible to request a waiver includes New York.

“Given the move to college- and career-ready standards, the dramatic changes in curricula that teachers and principals are now starting to teach, and the transition to new assessments aligned to those standards, the Department will consider… allowing states up to one additional year before using their new evaluation systems to inform personnel determinations,” Duncan wrote to top state education officials in each state.

The city Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment.